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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 



OF 



lAII-ffllL EWi illfiOM 



OF THE 



CONTINENTAL ARMY, 



WHO VVAA. IN THK V^-^AUr/f OF (JUKIiKC, DECEMBER 31, 1775. 



GEORGE W. CULLUM 



BKEVET MAJOK-GENEBAL V. S. AEMY . 



isr»>. 



254 Fifth Avenue, 

New York City, Oct. 20, 187G. 
Dear Sir : 

By request, I prepared a brief Biographical Sketch of 
Major-General Richard Montgomery for the Convention of Auth- 
ors and Antiquarians which met at Philadelphia to commemorate 
the Centennial day (July 2, 1876) of the Signing of the Declara- 
tion of our Independence. 

Sijice then I have visited Quebec, and have carefully examined 
all the localities connected with the assault of that city, December 
31, 1775. To present the results of these observations, and to 
correct some errors fallen into on supposed good authority, I have 
re-written the whole Memoir, which I now present to you with 
the request that you will return to me the previous imperfect copy, 
if I sent you one. 

Yours very respectfully, 

Geo. W. Cullum, 
Bvt. Major-General , U. S. Army. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 



OF 




mim mm iibi 



OF THE 



CONTINENTAL ARMY, 



WHO FELL IN THE ASSAULT OF QUEBEC, DECEiMBER 31, 1775. 



GEORGE W . C U L E U M 



BBEVET MAJOE-GENEKAL U. S. AKMY. 



1876. 






'Of 



MAJOR-GENERAL RICHARD MONTGOMERY. 



On the last day of the year preceding that of our Declaration of 
Independence, there fell one of the noblest martyrs to liberty — 
Major-General Richard Montgomery — whose death was mourned 
by friends and foes, and whose memory, after the lapse of a century, 
still lives in the grateful hearts of the millions of freemen of this giant 
Republic, whose foundation was sprinkled with his blood. 

Richard Montgomery, the second son of an Irish baronet, was 
born December 2, 1738, at Conway House, his father's country seat, 
near Raphoe, in the north of Ireland. After receiving a liberal 
education at Dublin College, he, in his eighteenth year, entered, 
September 21, 1756, the British Army, as an Ensign of the Seven- 
teenth Infantry, being soon after called to the field. Fortunately for 
America his career opened here, and not in the Seven Years' War of 
Prussia. In 1757 his regiment was ordered to Halifax, and the next 
year took part, under the immediate command of General Wolfe, in 
the capture of Louisburg, the American Gibralter guarding the 
entrance to the St. Lawrence from the Atlantic. During the invest- 
ment and siege of this great fortress, one of the most noted monuments 
of French power on this continent, young Montgomery showed such 
heroism and military capacity that he was promoted to be a 
Lieutenant, July 10, 1758. 

The news of Montcalm's bloody repulse of the British attack 
upon Ticonderoga, July 8, 1758, having reached General Amherst at 
Cape Breton, he, after leaving proper garrj^sons both at Louisburg 
and at Halifax, without orders, hastened to the relief of the defeated 
Abercrombie with five of his most efficient regiments, including the 
seventeenth. Landing at Boston, September 13, Amherst marched 
for fourteen days through an almost trackless wilderness to Fort 
William Henry, at the head of Lake George; and, in November 
following, was appointed to supercede Abercrombie in -the chief com- 
mand of the British forces in America. 

The next year England, anxious to profit by the advantage 
acquired by the capture of Cape Breton, decided upon a vigorous 
campaign, by sending Stanwix to complete the occupation of the 
posts connecting Lake Erie with the Ohio ; Prideaux to reduce Fort 



Niagara ; Amherst to move upon Montreal by Lake Champlain ; and 
Wolfe, with a large force supported by a fleet, to attack Quebec. 

Leaving Fort Edward, at the head of the Hudson, June 21, 1759, 
Amherst, with eleven thousand men, including Montgomery's regi- 
ment, without a blow, took posession of Ticonderoga, July '26, and of 
Crown Point, August 4 — both posts having been abandoned by the 
French. These strong works, the keys to the defense of Lakes 
George and Champlain, which had been the bone of contention in 
several campaigns, thus fell into British posession, the banner of the 
Bourbons never again floating over them. The road to Montreal by 
the Sorel could now have been easily opened ; but Amherst was a 
mediocre general, without fertility of resource or the daring enterprise 
of Wolfe, who fell in the arms of victory, September 13, 1759, before 
Quebec, nobly accomplishing his part of the campaign. 

Though Amherst's operations were unproductive of great re- 
sults, it gave Montgomery the opportunity of surveying with his 
quick military eye the field of his after glory in a nobler cause. We 
have assumed that Montgomery was with his regiment, which formed 
a part of Amherst's army, though many authorities to this day assert 
that he was at Quebec. It is barely possible that he was detached 
from his regiment, as he was a favorite with Wolfe, for whom he had 
done such gallant service at Louisburg; but we think it almost certain 
that he was with the seventeenth, under Amherst, and that he has 
been confounded with some one of the thirteen officers of the same 
name then in the British army, two of whom — George, an Ensign in 
the fifteenth, and the barbarous Alexander,* Captain of the forty- 
third — were at the capture of Quebec. 

Authorities equally differ as to Montgomery's position in the 
next campaign, of 17(10, of which Montreal was the objective point 
of the three British armies by which Canada was subjugated: the 
first, under Amherst, making an absurd and dangerous flank march 
of -lOO miles by the circuitous route to Oswego and down Lake 
Ontario and the St. Lawrence; the second, under Haviland, by the 

*Some years since, the Litemrj' and Historical Society of Quebec, published an Extract from a 
Manuscript Journal, relating to the Operations before Quebec in 1759, kept by Colonel Malcolm 
Frazer, then Lieutenant of the T.Sth (Frazer's Highlanders), and serving in that campaign. Under date 
of August 'iSd, n.5!t, is recorded in the Journal : " We were reinforced by a party of about 140 Light 
Infanlry, and a company of Rangers, under the command of Captain Montgomery, of Kennedy's or 
43d Regiment, who likewise took command of our detachment, and we all marched to attack the vil- 
lage to the west of St. Joachim, which was occupied by a party of the enemy to the number of about 
2U0. as we supposed, Canadians and Indians. * * * There were several of the enemy killed 

and wounded, and a few prisoners taken, all of whom the barbarous Captain Montgomery, who com- 
manded us, ordered to be butchered in the most inhuman and cruel manner." The Editor of the 
publication, not content to let the Journal speak for itself, appended a note stating that the Captain 
Montgomery here spoken of was " The Leader of the fo7-torn hope who /ell at Pres de I 'i7/e, Sist 
Deceinher, 1775," thus falling into the grave error of confounding the noble Lieutenant Richard 
Montgomery, of the 17th, with the brutal Captain Alexander Montgomerj', of the 43d. Doubtless 
this unfortunate note, published under the sanction of an Historical Society, on the very spot where 
these events transpired, has done much to perpetuate a mistake now almost crystalized into history 
as a truth. 



true strategic line of the Sorel, of less than 50 miles; and the third, 
under Murray, up the St. Lawrence from Quebec. As Montgomery 
became the Adjutant of his regiment in the spring of this year, May 
15, 1760, we have little doubt that he then was, and had been, pres- 
ent with it since its departure from Louisburg, and in this campaign 
accompanied Colonel Haviland over the same ground made so mem- 
orable by his after invasion of Canada in 1775, which we shall soon 
detail. 

America, north of the St. Lawrence and the Lakes, having 
changed masters, a large British force was no longer required there ; 
hence detachments from it were sent against the French and Spanish 
West India Islands of Martinique and Cuba, the former of which 
surrendered, February 13, 1762, to Monckton and Rodney, and a por- 
tion of the latter, including Havana and Moro Castle, August 12, 
1762, to Albemarle and Pococke — two events which doubtless hastened 
the Treaty of Versailles, February 10, 1763, and confirmed Britain's 
possession of an empire in North America. In these two campaigns 
of 1761 and 1762, in the deadly climate of the West Indies, Mont- 
gomery had his full share of toil and danger, reape'd fresh laurels as 
a brave and accomplished soldier, and won his promotion, May 6, 
1762, to a full Captaincy in his regiment, / 

Soon after the official announcement of peace, the Seventeenth 
Infantry returned to New York, and Montgomery obtained permis- 
sion to revisit Europe, where he remained for the next nine years, 
selling out his commission, April (J, 1772. Of the reasons for his 
leaving the British Army, and his occupation during this period of mili- 
tary inactivity, we have few details. But we know that he was inti- 
mate in England with the brilliant Burke, the fascinating Fox, and the 
bold Barre, his fellow British soldier wounded at Quebec, all of whom, 
in Parliament, were the ardent advocates of America in her severe 
struggle against the oppression of the mother country. Doubtless 
the influence of this distinguished trio gave form and pressure to a 
mind already in sympathy with the colonists, with whom he had stood 
shoulder to shoulder in five eventful campaigns. 

Montgomery, no longer in the British service, returned to Amer-, 
ica early in 1773 ; purchased a farm at King's Bridge, near New 
York ; soon after married Janet, the eldest child of Judge Rob- 
ert R. Livingston, and then moved to Rhinebeck, on the Hudson, 
where he followed his new vocation of agriculture with that zeal and 
intelligence which characterized all his actions. Here, though a for- 
eigner, he quickly gained the confidence of his neighbors, and so 
proved himself equal to the exigencies of the times that, in April, 
1775, he was elected a delegate from Dutchess County to.the first Pro- 



6 

vincial Convention held in New York, of which he was a useful, 
modest and taciturn member, not having acquired the modern mania 
for speech-making. But the forum was not his sphere, and fortu- 
nately he was called to a higher and more congenial field of action. 

The Continental Congress having resolved on armed resistance 
to the oppression of the mother country, elected, June 15, 1??5, 
George Washington commander-in-chief of all the colonial forces, 
and Horatio Gates, adjutant-geneneral ; on the 17th, Ward, Lee, Put- 
nam and Schuyler, major-generals ; and on the 22d, Pomeroy, Mont- 
gomery, Wooster, Heath, Spencer, Thomas, Sullivan and Greene, brig- 
adiers. Of the three selected from those who had been officers in the 
British army, Montgomery, though perhaps inferior to Charles Lee in 
quickness of mind, was much superior to both him and Gates in all 
the great qualities which adorn the soldier. 

The high distinction conferred upon him by the supreme 
authority of the colonies, without his solicitation or privity, was ac- 
cepted by Montgomery with his characteristic modesty, a patriotic 
sense of duty, and a strong presentiment of his swift-coming fate. 
Writing to a friend, he says: "The Congress having done me the 
honor of electing me a brigadier-general in their service, is an event 
which must put an end for a while, perhaps forever^ to the quiet 
scheme of life I had prescribed for myself: for, though entirely un- 
expected and undesired by me, the tvill of an oppressed people^ compelled 
to choose between liberty and slavery^ must be obeyed.'" From that hour 
he was no longer a Briton, but, with heart and soul, devoted himself 
to the service and glory of the land of his adoption, 

Ticonderoga and Crown Point had been captured by Colonel 
Ethan Allen and Seth Warner, in May, 1775, thus giving us the com- 
mand of Lake Champlain, when Congress, aware that Canada was 
weakly defended and had a large discontented French population, 
wisely resolved upon the invasion of that province, thus to prevent 
its becoming a base of hostile operations against us by the armies 
of Great Britain. According to the plan of campaign devised by 
General Washington and Doctor Franklin, Generals Schuyler and 
Montgomery, at the head of a body of New York and New England 
troops, were to seize Montreal, the approach to which was barred by 
the strong fortifications of St. John's and Chambly, on the Sorel, the 
outlet of Lake Champlain to the St. Lawrence, while Arnold marched 
through the wilderness of Maine. 

On the 2Gth of August the movement began down the placid 
waters of the beautiful Champlain Lake, which, for nearly two centu- 
ries, had been the scene of long campaigns and desperate battles. 
On the *'th of September the invading army appeared before the first 



of these barriers, efifected a landing, and defeated an Indian ambus- 
cade ; but Schuyler, deceived in regard to the strength of the garri- 
son of St. John's, and the disposition of the Canadians and Indians, 
fell back to Isle aux Noix, which he commenced fortifying, and then 
hastened to Ticonderoga for reinforcements. In reporting these 
transactions to Congress, General Schuyler says : " I cannot estimate 
the obligations I lie under to General Montgomery for the many im- 
portant services he has done and daily does, and in which he has had 
little assistance from me, as* I have not enjoyed a moment's health 
since I left Fort George, and am now so low as not to be able to hold 
a pen." 

In consequence of this sickness Schuyler retired to Albany, the 
command of the whole invading force devolving upon Montgomery, 
who hesitated not a moment, but abandoning his island in- 
trenchments was, on the 18th of September, again before St. John's, 
of which he began the investment and siege. Having accomplished 
the first, as best he could, he began the latter, but soon he found his mor- 
tars defective, his artillery too light for breeching, his ammunition 
scanty, his artillerists unpracticed, his engineer incompetent, the 
ground too wet and swampy for trenches, the weather cold and rainy, 
malaria producing much sickness, and his troops disaffected and in- 
subordinate. To escape these unfavorable circumstances, Montgom- 
ery proposed to move to the north-west side of the fort, where the 
ground was firm, and from there to make an assault ; but the troops re- 
fused to second their leader, and to crown his embarassment, the ex- 
pedition of the restless Ethan Allen against Montreal had terminated, 
September 25, in the capture of himself and many of his detach- 
ment. At length, however, Montgomery by his firmness and address 
succeeded in carrying out his views of moving his camp to the higher 
ground, and soon after, December 13, Colonel Bedel, with Majors 
Brown and Livingston, captured Fort Chambly, which, being twelve 
miles lower down the Sorel, had been left with a feeble garrison. 
This was an important event, as large supplies of ammunition, artillery 
and military stores fell into Montgomery's hands, which enabled him to 
press the siege of St. John's. This strong work capitulated Novem- 
ber 3, after a vigorous defense of nearly seven weeks, all hope of succor 
from Governor Carlton having been destroyed by his defeat, 
October 31, at Longueil, by the detachment under Colonel Warner. 

Immediately the Americans pressed on towards Montreal, which 
was abandoned, November 12, to the triumphal entry of Montgomery; 
but Governor Carlton, disguised as a peasant, escaped in a canoe with 
muffled paddles, passing on a dark night the American batteries and 
armed vessels without observation, and reached Quebec, on the 10th, 



to the great joy of the garrison, who placed every confidence in his 
well known courage and ability. When the news of Montgomery's 
brilliant success reached Congress, he was promoted, December 9th, 
1775, to be a Major-General; but his untimely death prevented his 
ever receiving the just reward of his merits. 

Though now master of one of the most important keys to Cana- 
da, not a moment was to be lost in gaining possession of the other, for, 
as Montgomery wrote to Congress, " Till Quebec is taken Canada is 
unconquered." Notwithstanding the severity of the weather, the de- 
sertion of many troops, the insubordination of officers, and a multi- 
tude of discouragements, he led on his band of three hundred patriots 
over frozen ground and drifting snows, keeping alive their hopes, and 
cheering them on to endure every hardship, by his own noble exam- 
ple of self-sacrifice and heroic devotion to his adopted country. 
Soon, November 17, he learned that the adventurous Arnold had 
completed that memorable march — one of the most wonderful on 
record — with his half-starved, freezing army, through deep swamps, 
trackless forests and tangled ravines, over craggy highlands and diffi- 
cult portages, and down the rushingrapids of the Kennebec and the 
Chaudiere. x\fter a brief delay before Quebec, Arnold marched up 
the St. Lawrence to join Montgomery. On the 1st of December the 
two heroes met at Pointe aux Trembles, twenty miles above the city, 
Montgomery taking command of the combined force, now only nine 
hundred effective men, with which, on the ith, in the face of a driv- 
ing snowstorm, he marched on Quebec, and on the 5th, after a slow 
and excessively fatiguing march, reached St. Foye, establishing his 
headquarters at Holland House. 

He was now in sight of the goal of his ardent wishes, to reach 
which for three months he had endured every species of toil and suf- 
fering. In his brief campaign, almost unsurmountable obstacles had 
been overcome, and victory after victory had crowned his heroic 
efforts. Ticonderoga, Crown Point, Forts St. John's and Chambly, 
Montreal, Sorel and Three Rivers had all been captured by less than 
an ordinary brigade of American recruits, whose march seemed irre- 
sistible, and whose prowess spread terror everywhere. The Canadian 
peasantry believed them invincible and ball proof, by a curious 
mistake they being represented as "incased in plate-iron" — vetus en 
tbje, instead of vetus en toile — clothed in linen (the shirt uniform of 
Morgan's riflemen.*) 

* In the early part of the Revolution part of the troops assumed the dress recommended by 
Washington — a hunting shirt and long gaiter breeches — made of tow cloth steeped in a tan vat until it 
reached the color of a dry leaf. This was called the shirt uniform, or rifle dress, and was supposed 
to carry no small terror to the enemy as the insignia of a thorough marksman. 



The Red Cross of St. George now floated solitary on the ram- 
parts of Quebec, for Levi, Sillery, St. Foye, Lorette, Charlesbourg, the 
Island of Orleans, Beauport, and every inch of British territory 
around the city were in possession of the invaders. It was a proud 
moment for Montgomery when he contemplated all this, and sur- 
veyed the historic grounds around him — in front, the Plains of Abra- 
ham, where Wolfe and Montcalm had joined, September 13, 1759, in 
their death struggle; on either side the battle field of St. Foye, where 
six months later, April 28, 1760, the vain-glorious Murray had nearly 
lost all that British valor had won ; and beyond, with its clustering 
associations of nearly two centuries, the fortress capital of Canada, 
whose capture would perhaps crown him conquerer of British 
America. 

Quebec, at the confluence of the St. Lawrence and St. Charles 
rivers, in 1775, was divided into the Upper and Lower Town, the 
former, occupying much the larger area, being perched upon the sum- 
mit of a huge, high rock, and mostly enclosed with formidable 
fortifications on the brow of its precipitous sides, while the latter 
comprised a narrow, low fringe of land, of unequal width, between 
the base of the rock and the banks of the two rivers. This citadel 
of British power was provisioned for eight months, was armed with 
two hundred pieces of heavy artillery, had a garrison of 1,800 regu- 
lars, militia and marines, and was commanded by the brave, cautious 
and accomplished General Guy Carleton, afterwards Lord Dorchester. 

Investment of the place was out of the question, with only 800 
Americans to guard the numerous avenues leading to the enemy's ex- 
tensive works. Siege was equally impracticable, as there could be no 
sapping and mining in the hard frozen soil, covered with deep snow- 
drifts; besides, Montgomery had no skilled engineer, nor any breach- 
ing artillery. He had contemplated storming the fortifications from 
the first, for writing to the Hon. R, R. Livingston, from Montreal, 
Montgomery says : " If my force be small, Carleton's is not great. 
The extensiveness of his works which, in case of investment, would 
favor him, will, in the other case, favor us. Masters of our secret, 
we may select a particular time and place to attack, and to repel 
this the garrison must be prepared at all times diwd places; a circum- 
stance which will impose upon it incessant watching and labor by day 
and by night ; which, in its undisciplined state, must breed discontents 
that may compel Carleton to capitulate, or perhaps to make an 
attempt to drive us off. In this last idea there is a glimmering of 
hope. Wolfe's success was a lucky hit, or rather a series of lucky hits. 
All sober and scientific calculation was against him, until Montcalm, 



10 

permitting his courage to get the better of his discretion, gave up 
the advantages of his fortress and came out to try his strength on the 
plain. Carleton, who was Wolfe's quartermaster-general, understands 
this well, and, it is to be feared, will not follow the Frenchman's 
example." 

Preliminary, however, to a coup de wain, it was necessary to 
know the character and extent of the enemy's works, his means of 
introducing supplies, the strength and composition of the garrison, 
and the disposition of the inhabitants of the city and vicinage. 
These precautions consumed precious days of the mid-winter of a 
boreal clime, which was now upon our benumbed handful of besieg- 
ers, among whom mutiny and small-pox prevailed, and whose enlist- 
ment would in a short time expire. Montgomery, almost in despair, 
summoned the city to surrender, but received no respoftse ; he pa- 
raded his troops before the place, but Carleton was not to be drawn 
from behind his defenses; and the discontented Canadians of the 
garrison dared not rebel in the presence of the British soldiery. 
Resorting next to more active measures, Montgomery threw every 
night from thirty to fifty shells from his five small mortars into the 
city; but these doing little damage, he erected at TOO yards, in 
front of St. John's Gate, a battery for his five light guns and one 
howitzer, the platforms being cakes of ice, and the epaulment made 
with gabions fiilled with compacted snow congealed into a solid mass. 
This too, owing to the distance and small calibre of his guns, failed 
of success, the battery being soon demolished by the enemy's supe- 
rior artillery, which kept up an effective fire upon every point where 
troops were to be seen. On one occasion, as Montgomery was recon- 
noitering near the town, the horse which drew his cariole was killed 
by a cannon ball. 

Weeks had now been spent in unavailing efforts to capture the 
city, biting cold and drifting snows paralyzed almost every move- 
ment, sickness and privations were producing mutiny, and perils on 
every hand were gathering around the undaunted leader in that ter- 
rible campaign ; but his noble soul rose superior to every misfortune, 
and sustained him with the same moral grandeur which inspired 
Marshal Ney till the last of the rear-guard of Napoleon's Grand 
Army had escaped the pursuing foe and the deadlier rigor of a Rus- 
sian winter. 

In a council of war, held December Kith, it was resolved, as the 
only remaining alternative, to carry the place by storm. As the time 
for assault drew near, three companies of Arnold's detachment muti- 
nied ; but Montgomery's firmness and address soon brought them 



11 

back to a proper sense of their duty. Finally, at two o'clock on the 
morning of the last day of the year, the whole command was paraded, 
in three columns, for the last dread trial. The plan, essentially differ- 
ent from that first adopted and abandoned when disclosed by a de- 
serter, was for the first and second divisions to assault the Lower Town, 
then to meet and unitedly force their way into the city through the 
picketed passage at the foot of Mountain street, since 1797 known as 
the Prescott Gate ; while the third, under Livingston and Brown, was, 
from the Plains of Abraham, to alarm and distract the attention of the 
garrison by feigned attacks upon the Upper Town, in the neighbor- 
hood of St. John's and St. Louis' Gates and Cape Diamomd bastion. 
The morning was dark and gloomy, a violent pelting storm of cutting 
hail almost blinding the men, and the drifting snows obliterating all 
traces of highways. To recognize each other, the soldiers wore hem- 
lock sprigs or pieces of white paper in their caps, on which some of 
them wrote : " Liberty or Death." A more daring attack than 
that which they were about to undertake is, perhaps, not on record 
upon the page of history. 

At five o'clock the two assaulting columns of Montgomery and 
of Arnold began their march. Arnold's division, himself lead- 
ing the advance guard of 30 men, followed by Lamb's piece of artill- 
ery mounted on a sledge, and the main body of about 500 infantry 
and riflemen, under Morgan, moved through the suburb of St. Roch, 
by way of St. Charles^ street, near the river. The advance-guard 
approached a picketed two-gun battery defending a barrier across the 
road, without being discovered, but the main body had scarcely 
reached the Palace Gate when " a horrid roar of cannon and a ring- 
ing of all the bells of the city " sounded the alarm. Covering the 
locks of their guns with the lappets of their coats, to protect them 
from the pelting storm, the infantry and riflemen ran single file, in 
very open order, as rapidly as the deep snow and the various obstacles 
would permit, along the base of the high rock upon which the Upper 
Town was built. The files, though thirty or forty yards apart, were 
exposed to a terrible fire from the ramparts, to which no reply could 
be made, as only the flash of the enemy's guns was to be seen. Ar- 
nold's forlorn hope attacked and carried the battery after a desperate 
resistance, in which he was severely wounded, and had to be carried 
to the hospital. Though encouraging the men as he passed to the 
rear, the ardor of the main body was much dampened, Nevertheless 
they hurried forward under the severe enfilading and plunging fire of the 
garrison, to the attack of the first barrier, which was carried, the em- 
brasure being entered " when the enemy were discharging their guns." 



12 

From the first to the second barrier there was a circular course of 
about 300 yards, partly through Dog Lane, opening into the head of 
Sault-au-Matelot street, where the second barricade closed the space 
between the foot of the rock and the river bank. Here a terrible 
contest took place, the enemy having dry and superior arms ; in front, 
a shot-proof cover twelve feet high; behind, two tiers of musketeers, 
supported by an elevated battery of artillery ; on either side, 
houses giving a plunging fire from their upper windows; and re-in- 
forcements continually arriving from the other parts of the town now 
unexposed, for already Montgomery had fallen, Campbell, his suc- 
cessor was in flight, and the '' dastardly persons employed to make 
the false attacks " had signally failed. Efforts to scale the barrier 
were made in face of the desolating fire of musketry and grape; the 
platform within was emptied by our unerring riflemen ; Morgan, 
Arnold's successor in command, brave to temerity, stormed and 
raged ; all that valor could do was essayed ; the killed and wounded 
literally choked the defile ; but human efforts could not prevail 
against such surpassing odds. Now it was that Morgan, seeing the 
Quixotism of this unequal hand to hand encounter, ordered the occu- 
pation of the houses on our side of the barrier, that our men might 
be better screened and maintain a more effective fire. It was 
already daylight, and many of the best officers and men had been killed 
or wounded ; hesitation and doubt seized many of the survivors ; 
and the critical moment for the last cast of fortune was allowed to 
pass, when Captain Laws, at the head of '200 of the garrison, sortied 
from the Palace Gate, cutting off the retreat of the Americans, nearly 
four hundred of whom were captured, the remaining survivors having 
escaped across the ice covering the Bay of St. Charles. 

At the same time that Arnold's division began its march, Mont- 
gomery, who could not be dissuaded that the commander-in-chief 
should not expose his life in the advance, descended from the Plains 
of Abraham, at the head of his column of less than three hundred, 
to the cove where Wolf landed in 1T59, and then led his forlorn hope, in 
Indian file, cautiously along the margin of the St. Lawrence toward 
the very narrow pass of Pres de Vil/e, having a precipice towards 
the river on one side, and the scarped rock extending up to Cape 
Diamond on the other. Here all further appoach to the Lower 
Town was intercepted by a barrier, and the defile, only wide enough 
for two or three abreast, was swept by a battery of three-pounders 
loaded with grape, placed in a block-house. At daybreak, Montgom- 
ery's approach was discovered by the guard and Captain Barnsfare's 
gunners, which had been kept under arms awaiting the attack which 



13 

they had reason to expect from reports of deserters ; and, as had 
been previously concerted, the x\mericans were allowed to approach 
unmolested to within fifty yards. Montgomery, while the rear of the 
column was coming up with the ladders, halted to reconnoitre in the 
dim dawn darkened with the driving northeast storm. Deceived by 
the silence of the enemy, who, with port-fires lighted, were eagerly 
watching for his approach, Montgomery cried out to his little band, 
as soon as about sixty were assembled : " Men of New York ! you will 
not fear to follow where your general leads; march on, brave boys! 
Quebec is ours! " and then rushed boldly to charge the battery, over 
the drifted snow and blocks of ice, some of which he cleared away with 
his own hands, to make room for his troops. The enemy, waiting 
for this critical moment, discharged a shower of grape and musketry, 
with deadly precision, into the very faces of the assailants. Mont- 
gomery, pierced with three balls, his Aide, Macpherson, the gallant 
Captain Cheeseman, and ten others, were instantly killed. For sev- 
eral hours after the repulse of the American column Carleton was 
uncertain as to Montgomery's fate; but a field officer among the cap- 
tured troops of Arnold's detachment recognized among the thirteen 
frozen corpses, h'i'ig as they fell, in their winding sheets of snow, 
the heroic leader of the Spartan band.* Through the courtesy of 
Carleton, the commanding-general of the British forces, the body of 
Montgomery was privately interred, January -4, i7T'>, at the gorge of 
St. Louis bastion. His short and and light sword, of which he had 
thrown away the scabbard, was found near him by James Thompson, 
overseer of public works in the royal engineer department at Quebec, 
who, dying at the age of ninety-eight years, bequeathed it to his son, 
who in turn willed it to his nephevv, James Thompson Harrower, who 
has deposited " this famous escalibur," for safe keeping, in the mu- 



*The oft-repeated story that. Aaron Burr attempted to carry away the body of Montgomery 
has been handed dowaby Trumbull's pencil, and recently renewed with much exaggeration in Par- 
ton's biography of him ; nevertheless, we believe it to be an error, and even doubt whether he was 
with Montgomery's column, though his friend, Matthew L. Davis, generally accurate in his state- 
ments, says. " General Montgomery [when he fell] was within a few feet of Captain Burr." 

Burr, disguised as a Catholic priest, had been sent by Arnold to convey to Montgomery, when 
at Montreal, the information of his near approach to Quebec. Pleased with Burr, Montgomery 
temporarily attached him to his staff, and had designed that he should lead, with forty men, an as- 
sault upon Cape Diamond bastion. When this first plan was frustrated by its being disclosed to the 
enemy by a deserter. Burr probably joined his old commander, believing more glory was to be gained 
under the impetuous Arnold than under the brave but cautious Montgomery. In confirmation of 
this is Arnold's own letter to General Wooster, written from the hospital where he lay wounded, 
and while the assault of Quebec was yet in progress. He says : " The last accounts from my detach- 
ment, about ten minutes ago, they were pushing toward the lower town. ****** The 
loss of my detachment before I left it was about twenty men killed and wounded. Among the 
latter is Major Ogden, who, with Captain Oswald, Captain Bur>\ and the other volunteers, behaved 
extremely well." This certainly implied that Burr was with Arnold's column, and not with Mont- 
gomery's, which was a mile away. Possibly Burr assisted Arnold to the hospital, but certainly he 
did not move Montgomery's body from where it fell and was found, " two paces from the brink of 
the river, on the back, the arms extended," close to Cheesman and Macpherson, and two privates. 

\ "- 



14 

seum of the Literary and Historical Society, at Morrin College, 
Quebec. 

" Brief, brave, and glorious was his young career, — 

His mourners were two hosts — his friends and foes ; 

And fitly may the stranger lingering here 

Pray for his gallant spirit's bright repose ; 

For he was Freedom's champion, one of those. 

The few in number, who had not o'erstept 

The charter to chastise which slie bestows 

On such as wield her weapons ; he had kept 

The whiteness of his soul, and thus men o'er him wept." 

Looking now upon the attack of Quebec simply as a problem of 
engineering, it is questionable whether the false attacks should not 
have been real, and the latter feints. By the plan adopted, Mont- 
gomery and Arnold had each to force their way, for about a mile, 
through the Lower Town, during a violent storm, by narrow, obstructed 
defiles, and amid dark, intricate passages, among store-houses, boats, 
wharves and snow drifts, at the same time being harassed by a constant 
plunging fire of a continuous line of fortifications, which could not 
be silenced ; then to make a second attack by either escalading the 
walls, or forcing one of the gates of the Upper Town ; and perhaps 
even a third attack upon the redoubt which then occupied the site of 
the present citadel — //i/re extremely difficult and dangerous opera- 
tions ; whereas, had Diamond bastion and the incomplete line of de- 
fenses fronting the Plains of Abraham, between it and St. John's 
Gate, been simultaneously assaulted, the Upper Town would probably 
have been carried, and then the Lower Town would have offered no 
resistance — o/ie not extremely hazardous operation, considering the 
state of the garrison and the extent of the works to be defended 
against dashing, desperate men. Doubtless it was expected that the 
storm and darkness would prevent the discovery of the march of the 
columns, but the event proved what ought to have been expected of a 
vigilant garrison, commanded by an observant and thoughtful officer, 
who, in fact, knew of the intended attack eight days before it was 
made. Soon after the troops were in motion their approach was 
known by the sentries, and before they had reached the first barrier 
every bell in the city was tolled, the drums beat to arms, the inhab- _ 
itants were running to the market place, and every soldier was at his 
post, ready with cannon and musket to repel the assailants. 

The death of Montgomery made a profound impression, both in 
Europe and America. The Continental Congress proclaimed for him 
" their grateful remembrance, profound respect, and high veneration, 
and desiring to transmit to future ages a truly worthy example of 



15 

patriotism, conduct, boldness of enterprise, insuperable perseverance* 
and contempt of danger and death," caused to be executed by Caf- 
fieres, sculptor of Louis XVI, a monument of white marble, of the 
most beautiful simplicity and graceful proportions, with emblematic 
devices, and a classical inscription written by Franklin, which, since 
1789, has adorned the front of St. Paul's church, in the city of New 
York. 

Forty-three years after Montgomery's death his remains, of which 
the skeleton was found complete, by a resolution of the Legislature 
of the State of New York, were removed from Quebec, and buried, 
July 8, 1818, near the cenotaph erected by Congress to his 
memory. As the body^ was borne down the Hudson river, the 
steamer, as directed by Governor Clinton, paused before " Montgom- 
ery Place," near Barrytown, where the widow of the hero resided, 
and who thus describes the mournful pageant : "At length they came 
by with all that remained of a beloved husband, who left me in the 
bloom of manhood, a perfect being. Alas! how did he return.^ 
However gratifying to ray heart, yet to my feelings every pang I felt 
was renewed. The pomp with which it was conducted added to my 
woe ; when the steamboat passed with slow and solemn movement, 
stopping before my house, the troops under arms, the Dead March 
from the muffled drums, the mournful music, the splendid coffin can- 
opied with crape, and crowned by plumes, you may conceive my 
anguish. I cannot describe it. Such voluntary honors were never 
before paid to an individual by a republic, and to Governor Clinton's 
munificence much is owing." 

Of Washington's thirteen generals, elected by- the Continental 
Congress, some were mere sabreurs, many incompetent, and several 
effete from sickness or age ; two only — Schuyler and Greene— could 
be compared to Montgomery, and neither of these was his superior 
in character, attainments or military experience. Of such materiel 
as Montgomery, Napoleon made the marshals of his Empire, for he 
was as intrepid as Ney, as steadfast as Macdonald, as fearless as 
Massena, as prudent as Soult, as resolute as Davoust, as self-poised 
as Suchet, and as impetuous as Lannes, ever ready to lead in the fore- 
front of battle to do or die for his country. It must be ever lamented 
that a spirit so elevated and so devoted to the cause of liberty should 
have been sacrificed, in the bloom of manhood, in a conflict so une- 
qual and so hopeless of success. Winkelried met not arnore glorious 
death, nor did Austrian pikes, at Sempach, pierce a braver heart 
than that of the noble martyr of Pres de Ville, worthy to rank 
among the first of heroes and patriots. 



16 

Montgomery was the embodiment of tlie true gentleman and 
chivalrous soldier: high-born, handsome in person and athletic in 
form, graceful and simple in manners, modest and taciturn in speech, 
generous and frank in disposition, loving to kindred and fond of his 
fireside, of sanguine temperament tinged with melancholy, cultivated 
in taste and studious of books, self-reliant and of sound judgment, 
faithful to duty and zealous in its performance, just to all for a high 
moral sense was his guide, firm of will in carrying out his convic- 
tions, true to friends and generous to foes, brave as a paladin and the 
soul of honor — he united every manly attribute to the gentleness and 
affection of woman. 

His letters to his wife, amid all his difficulties and sufferings, are 
those of a knightly lover, sighing and longing to worship at the 
altar of his household gods. Though a soldier from boyhood, he de- 
lighted in the calm pursuit of agriculture, and reluctantly bade adieu 
to his "quiet scheme of life " only because "the will of an oppressed 
people, compelled to choose between liberty and slavery, must be 
obeyed " When he resumed his sword in the cause of our inde- 
pendence, he shrank from no danger, evaded no responsibility, ener- 
getically performed every duty, imparted his own confidence and 
courage to all about him, won the love and esteem of his soldiery, 
and tempering authority with kindness, checked insubordination, re- 
moved discontent, and converted a disorderly band of turbulent free- 
men into a disciplined army of patriots. He was truly a "servant of 
humanity, enlisted in its corps of immortals," and his heroic end 
was the amaranthine crown to his useful and unsullied career. 

" Death made no conquest of this conquerer, 
For now he lives in fame, though not in life." 



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